April 17, 2011

Jeff and family

Mom and Dad,


Renata sent me some pictures of Derick riding his bicycle and I have placed them up on Flickr.


Our week went well.


Felipe and Lucas both sound happy and excited about the opportunity to come. They continue in their lives of soccer and school and then more soccer. Tough, real tough.


Derick had a hard week as he received his DPT shot which has caused him quite a bit of soreness in his arm. He was able to recover to go to his friends birthday party on Saturday, amazing the power of the mind, where he had a lot of fun. Since returning he decided tomorrow is now going to be his birthday and has been asking Renata to prepare a party and call his friends. Good luck Renata. Wish I were there to help, maybe.


Renata has been busy with Derick not feeling well and all of the other responsibilities that befall her. Still she has been holding up well and enjoying herself.


I had a good week at work. On Friday Matthew and I had a very informative lesson with a man who has worked with computers and database for probably 30 years. I think that I learned more about the ins-and-outs of computers in those few hours than through any book that I have ever read on the subject. It was amazing. He also looked over a very large database that I am building and gave me suggestions.


Besides that I continue to try to pass as through parks on my way to and from work. The cherry trees are blooming and the world is coming alive again. I have enjoyed very much my time riding a bicycle to work and don't plan on driving to work after I buy a car.


I hope that your week has brought so much pleasure and joy.


Love,


Jeff




Grant's News

It has been a very long week for Grant. He worked every single day and a local drama group decided to come in three nights in a row at fifteen minutes before close. The first two nights it was twelve people, the last 30+. So Grant's hasn't been getting home until 2 am or so every night. Luckily, some finalized plans came about this week at work where Grant will take a pay cut but now won't be required to work more than 40 hours or so in the week. It won't be until mid-May until happens, but he is excited for it all the same. He gets a day off finally on Monday and he is very excited for it.

The Lane's of Virginia

Happy Birthday to the old lady, Lenny!

We began to work on Jeff's rocking chair this week! Starting off with disassembling it into little pieces and adding wood glue for loose pieces. Julie also had another doctor's appointment. We are both really excited because the doctor has band us for 6months! We are really excited for the budget on that one! All the doctor's appointments are very expensive.

Tuesday, Julie taught a gardening lesson for all experience-levels at enrichment.

Every other moment this week up till Friday night was filled with napkin flowers and decorations for the Ward party. People thought it was awesome and, especially for being at 20.00 dollars in cost, very cool.

Saturday was a cool down day from church activities since Jeff and I were feeling very tired from the rigorous demands they made. We were so glad to have a day away from the world! While there is flooding here we have not had any in our apartment. Yesterday produced more rain than we expected. It was hailing here too! All is safe for now. Thank you for those that had concern for us. Julie

The Wisconsin Haws Family

We adopted 12 new chicks and one parakeet into our family circle. Logan's chickens are laying about 5-10 eggs per day. Logan sells the eggs at about $1.50 per dozen so he is really beginning to earn some meaningful amount of money. He is splitting it between tithing, mission savings and personal spending. He is actually doing pretty good with the savings component.

Emily and Logan are full swing into spring sports. Sometimes it is a bit frustrating to try to make sure we have dinner together. Emily had a number of games this last week. Her team is doing much better this year. She was able to attend junior prom this year with a group of friends. Pictures will be included.

Lanette enjoyed her birthday party at our home. It was simple. This coming week she will also have a birthday celebration with the Elmhorst family. They have been so kind to Lanette. It is really amazing how kind they are. I see a childlike kindness that Brother and Sister Elmhorst personify.

Mom has been busy putting things together to help Jeff as he moves into his apartment. She has been searching for all sorts of things to help. Mom is the greatest at nurturing and showing love. She will be going to Woman's Conference in a couple of weeks. It will be a hard thing since those of us here in Marshfield really depend on her for so much.

I have been busy with scouts this last week. We finalized the registration for scout camp and have two Eagle court of honor presentations. It was really great.

Love Dad

The Jackson's of Albuquerque

For Kevin this week was filled with late nights working on homework and preparing for big papers. With only a few weeks till finals, the pressure has really been building in his courses. However, they did find some time on Monday to enjoy a FHE lesson together. On Tuesday Stacie enjoyed mutual with the beehives where they played games and shared their favorite treats. (As an important reference, Stacie's favorite treat were York pieces.) On Wednesday Stacie stayed late at work to resolve some issues with an employee. She was very happy to leave work with an improved relationship. After work on Friday Stacie and Kevin headed over to a goodbye party for their friend, Cesar, who will no longer be working with Kevin at the YMCA. The goodbye party was held at a bar, but (much to their relief) Stacie's ID wouldn't pass the screen test and they weren't permitted in. Instead they enjoyed a date night out to Goodwill where they giggled at some crazy finds and even picked up a few nice items. On Saturday they caught up on their errands and enjoyed a delicious green chili & sausage pizza from a pizza place called "Pizza Castle" which, unfortunately, is not built to look like a castle. They look forward to relaxing this evening before another busy week of homework and work.

The Haws family of Colorado

This week was an adventurous week. First of all to start out our week the girls and I were going for a walk and a bird started squawking at us, as I looked down I noticed that it had been hurt. I called a vet and described what the bird looked like and asked if someone was able to come and pick it up. They told me that they didn't have anyone and asked if I could bring it in so I made the neighbor girl put the towel over the bird and put it in the laundry basket. When we were driving, the bird was not very happy and kept squawking (probably because Haley kept squawking at it) and poking its beak though the towel which made me very, very nervous. Once we arrived at the vet they saw the bird and then told me that I was brave for bring that bird in because it was a Western Grebe and if they knew it was a Grebe they would have had someone come and pick it up...I felt like saying "Are you kidding me?!" On top of all the bird excitement I had to take Kayla to the ER because she was having a fever for a few days and ended up with a bad ear infection. On Saturday I took the girls to the Easter Egg hunt on post. The girls thought it was fun until Kayla tipped her bucket of eggs and everyone kept taking them from her, but luckily there were some nice kids that shared their eggs with Kayla.